Crystal Chameleon Style
This ancient Celestial martial art dates back to the Primordial War, when it was innovated and used by the Chosen of Mercury to help deliver vital mes-sages despite overwhelming Primordial opposition. Demons and Lintha alike were left blinking and confused as practitioners quickly blurred through their blockades, leaving only footprints and corpses to mark their passing. It is still strongly favored today for its mixture of surprise and speed. Those who have fought a Blinding Prism (as practitioners of this style are known) rarely know precisely what hit them, and that suits the needs of the Viziers of the Second Age perfectly. Unbeknown to its Sidereal inventors, the style is also widely popular in Autochthonia. Weapons and Armor: Crystal Chameleon style treats attacks made with the spear, rope dart, weighted rope and their artifact equivalents as unarmed for the purpose of its Charms. It is incompatible with armor. Complementary Abilities: To properly execute the lightning-fast movements and sudden ambushes of the style, practitioners must have at least three dots spread between Stealth and Athletics. Just Another Branch Deceit Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 2; Type: Supplemental Keywords: Combo-basic Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: None Radiating Essence through his chakras in a precisely controlled array, the character breaks light around himself, creating intermittent highlights of illumination and shadow throughout the area which help draw attention away from himself. This Charm may supplement an attempt to reestablish surprise (see Exalted, p. 156) during combat, adding three automatic successes to the attempt. If the character enjoys more than 50% hard cover due to the environment at the time of activation, the Charm provides four automatic successes instead. The martial artist must still have the opportunity to attempt to reestablish surprise in the first place. Light-Treading Technique Cost: 3m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious Duration: One scene Prerequisite Charms: None Extending her anima in an ablative envelope around her, the martial artist eases her passage through the world. She adds her Martial Arts rating in yards to her Move and Dash actions, and raises her Dodge DV by one against ranged attacks. Flashing Passage Cost: 2m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Supplemental Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious Duration: One action Prerequisite Charms: Just Another Branch Deceit, Light-Treading Technique Collapsing her Essence into pure forward momentum, the martial artist briefly blurs and disappears from sight. This Charm supplements a Dash action, which may not be part of a flurry. The total distance the character travels is quadrupled after all other modifiers, and she cannot be seen or targeted while moving. This Charm‟s stealth element explicitly fails without provoking a roll-off against effects that would allow others to notice an otherwise perfectly invisible character. Crystal Chameleon Form Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Simple Keywords: Form-type, Obvious Duration: One scene Prerequisite Charms: Flashing Passage The martial artist strikes her anima banner, fracturing it into a shifting prism. It becomes impossible to precisely fix her location, imposing a -2 external penalty on all attacks directed at the character. She is always considered to meet the requirements to attempt to reestablish surprise during combat while this Charm is active. Flashing Leaves Evasion Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 2) Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Crystal Chameleon Form Putting on a sudden burst of speed, the martial artist melts into a blur as an attack closes in on her, briefly disappearing and reappearing to evade the blow. This Charm sets an incoming attack‟s successes to 0 in Step Three after all other modifiers. This does mean that rerolls (which occur in Step Four) may allow an attack to bypass this form of defense. This weakness is considered to be a special flaw of invulnerability. Flashing Leaves Evasion does not function against attacks that are undodgeable or unexpected. Shattered Crystal Rebuke Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 9) Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack, Obvious Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Flashing Leaves Evasion Subjected to attack, the crystal shatters, wounding its attacker rather than defending itself. This Charm may be invoked in response to an attack, whether it strikes the martial artist or not. The character vanishes in a blur of speed, reappearing behind his attacker. This movement allows for a reflexive attempt to re-establish surprise. This action does not impede resolution of the original attack in any way, and is considered to be a form of counterattack. If the martial artist is the target of a flurry, she may invoke this Charm in response to only the final attack in that flurry. Razor-Edged Prism Assault Cost: 7m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 2; Type: Extra Action Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Crystal Chameleon Form Accelerating into a flickering blur of unleashed violence, the Blinding Prism strikes a foe from many angles, moving so fast that her attacks seem to occur simultaneously. The character launches a flurry of (Essence) unarmed attacks at her full dice pool against a single opponent. This flurry ignores Rate and has a total Speed and DV penalty equal to the highest of any single attack in the flurry. These attacks all impose a coordinated attack penalty on the target‟s DVs equal to the total number of attacks in the flurry. Death From Nowhere Method Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Supplemental Keywords: Combo-OK Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Razor-Edged Prism Assault In one moment the battlefield is serene; in the next, the martial artist has already struck. This deadly Charm may be used to supplement an unexpectedmunarmed attack, doubling any levels of damageminflicted in Step Ten. Stepping Beyond Light Prana Cost: 10m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive Keywords: Obvious Duration: One scene Prerequisite Charms: Death from Nowhere Method, Shattered Prism Rebuke The martial artist focuses her Essence into her lungs then breathes it out into her anima, which shivers into a kaleidoscope that expands to intermittently flicker through an area with a radius of (Essence x 50) yards, roughly centered on the martial artist and moving with her. While this emphatically announces the Blinding Prism‟s general presence, it also conceals her precise location. She becomes invisible, imposing a -2 external penalty on all attempts to precisely locate or target her with attacks. This invisibility fails during any tick when the martial artist attacks, voiding the protection it affords during that moment.